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The Shaping Forces of Society: Stendhal’s Europe

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Man and Society in Nineteenth-Century Realism
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Abstract

Calendars, clocks and strong coffee were as essential to the art of Balzac as pen and paper; in a much subtler way, the same was almost as true of Stendhal. Both were men of their time in their concern for the detail and chronology of social change. If the indications in Stendhal’s novels were often indirect—and occasionally coyly concealed—they were cheerfully overt with Balzac. This chapter attempts to provide a brief outline of the rapid and far-reaching social changes that made writers of their generation especially aware of society as a determining force.

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© 1977 Maurice Larkin

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Larkin, M. (1977). The Shaping Forces of Society: Stendhal’s Europe. In: Man and Society in Nineteenth-Century Realism. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01661-7_2

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